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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

各

gè
each; every (determiner)
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 口
  • 6 strokes

Etymology graph

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 夂 (“sole of foot”) + 口 – to come, to enter; original form of 𢓜 and 格 (OC *klaːɡ, *kraːɡ). The mouth could be referred to the entrance of a cavern or building (see 高, 去 and 谷; however, this is not the case in 向). Compare 出.

Sino-Tibetan. Derived from 舉 (OC kaʔ) with distributive suffix -k. Cognate with Proto-Lolo-Burmese *ka (“all”) (Schuessler, 2007)

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese夂 “to approach from behind”
  • ideaChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”

Related: Proto-Lolo-Burmese *ka

Words built on it: 路, 各位, 各自, 客, 各地

Meanings

character
  1. each; every (determiner)
  2. each (adverb)
  3. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

各：異辭也。从口、夊。夊者，有行而止之，不相聽也。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 群體中的單數。 例：各國、各位
  2. 個別的。 例：各自、各個擊破

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 各 was written 字形演變

  1. 各 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 各 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 各 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 各 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 各 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 各 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 各